Description of Research Expertise

Dr. Shiriki Kumanyika is emeritus professor of epidemiology in the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School Of Medicine. She has an interdisciplinary background and holds advanced degrees in social work, nutrition, and public health. During her tenure on the Penn Medicine faculty, Dr. Kumanyika also served as the Associate Dean for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, held a secondary appointment as Professor of Epidemiology in the Department of Pediatrics (Division of Gastroenterology, Nutrition Section), and was affiliated with numerous Penn institutes and centers. She was the Founding Director of Penn's interdisciplinary, multi-school Master of Public Health program. Dr. Kumanyika's research focuses on identifying effective strategies to reduce nutrition-related chronic disease risks, with a particular focus on achieving health equity for black Americans. For more than three decades, she has led or collaborated on single- or multi-center randomized clinical trials or observational studies related to obesity, salt intake, and other aspects of diet. Several of these studies have evaluated interventions to promote healthy eating and physical activity in African American children or adults in clinical or community-based settings. Dr. Kumanyika founded (in 2002) and continues to chair the African American Collaborative Obesity Research Network (AACORN) (www.aacorn.org), a national network that seeks to improve the quantity, quality, and effective translation of research on weight issues in African American communities. She has extensive experience in advisory roles related to public health and nutrition policy in the US and abroad. Dr. Kumanyika is a member of the National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine)and is a past president of the American Public Health Association.

Powell Lisa M, Wada Roy, Kumanyika Shiriki K: Racial/ethnic and income disparities in child and adolescent exposure to food and beverage television ads across the U.S. media markets. Health & place 29C: 124-131, Jul 2014.

Kumanyika S K, Whitt-Glover M C, Haire-Joshu D: What works for obesity prevention and treatment in black Americans? Research directions. Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity 15 Suppl 4: 204-12, Oct 2014.

Chatterji Madhabi, Green Lawrence W, Kumanyika Shiriki: L.E.A.D.: a framework for evidence gathering and use for the prevention of obesity and other complex public health problems. Health education & behavior : the official publication of the Society for Public Health Education 41(1): 85-99, Feb 2014.

Kumanyika S: INFORMAS (International Network for Food and Obesity/non-communicable diseases Research, Monitoring and Action Support): summary and future directions. Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity 14 Suppl 1: 157-64, Oct 2013.